Strenght bonus for monsters Options

[aigleborgne]

Hello,

Players use strenght bonus for melee weapons.

What about monsters?
I know bonus is applying for claw's type weapon, but for bite?
I have looked into many monsters in BG2, and some does have it, some doesn't.

For example, greater basilisk have 3 attack:
- petrification
- claw with poison (with strenght bonus)
- bite (no strenght bonus)

What do you think about that?

This post has been edited by aigleborgne: Dec 18 2005, 05:41 PM

[Vlasák]

In case of a claw, compare 2 monsters:
Black bear and Polar bear, they should have a similar claw. But polar bear is more stronger, bigger, and so should inflict more damage.

Hmm, but the strength of the monsters is reflected in their damage. For example, in PnP black bear has damage statistics 1-3/1-3/1-6 and polar bear 1-10/1-10/2-12.

It is similar with the idea of weight that modifies the damage. There is the dependency between weight and creature's strength a thus again in the monster's damage. The idea is nice but we must put up with the fact that all is about rules. ADnD has some conception how to "simulate" reality.

There is the imaginary line between playability and reality. We can say that the attack can be better because of high strength, ok... We can say that the attack can be better because of high dexterity (attacker is more skilled in handling of weapon), we can say that the attack can be better because of intelligence (attacker is able to do better analysis of the certain combat situation), we can say that the attack can be better because of wisdom (attacker knows the weakness of his enemy), we can say many other ideas affecting the attack "quality"... And not just in discussion about attack - speed factor, spellcasting, every other aspect of the game rule can be more specific and precise. However, in most cases we would cross the border of the space where ADnD rules are meaningful.

As my friend said "Don't try to simulate reality in simple rules. Differential equations are the method how to describe reality - so the game would need them then at least."
ADnD are quite simple rules, every attempt to make some aspect more complex can break their (already weak ) balance from the whole system view. And I think that the damage of monsters is already cover quite good by rules.